Imprisoned former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort should not be sent to solitary confinement, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Wednesday.
“Paul Manafort is being sent to solitary confinement in my district - Rikers Island,” the New York Democrat wrote. “A prison sentence is not a license for gov torture and human rights violations. That‘s what solitary confinement is. Manafort should be released, along with all people being held in solitary.”
Ocasio-Cortez made the comment in response to an article in The New York Times explaining how Manafort could be sent to Rikers jail in New York.
Manafort is currently serving a federal prison sentence in a minimum security facility in Pennsylvania after being convicted in federal court of bank and tax fraud, according to the Washington Examiner.
He is set to be transferred to New York, where he will face state charges in court as early as next week.
The New York Post explained that, at Rikers, Manafort might end up in protective custody to separate him from the general population because of his high-profile status, which is not the same as solitary confinement.
The infirmary block where Manafort might be sent at Rikers includes a day room, and the prisoners are not locked in cells during the day.
An inmate in solitary confinement is usually locked in a cell for 22 to 24 hours a day.
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